Celebrating 100 years at Montour landmark

MONTOUR FALLS-- Members of the public, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce and the Schuyler County Historical Society came together Thursday, Sept. 16 to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Flats on Broadway building. Formerly a school for students from kindergarten through eighth grade, the Flats has been renovated to be a mixed-use building and actually houses two of its former students.
"This building is [celebrating the] 100 year anniversary of when it was built, so we wanted to recognize that," said Bruce Nelson, owner of Nelson Development. "We even have two graduates from this school, it was K-8, and they actually live here in the building and even brought their class pictures."
While the interior of the building has been completely renovated to ensure it can provide every modern need to both residences and businesses, there is still evidence throughout the building indicating its educational past. Old black and white pictures of students, signs from the old school serve as a constant reminder to both Beverly Martin and Claude Cole that while they live in the building now it also served a very different purpose for them in the 1950s.
"I graduated in 1955 from here," said Martin. "And it isn't weird, it feels like coming back home. It has a great nostalgic feeling, it's a great place to live."

Sometimes it can be easy to get lost in the nostalgia and start thinking of old classmates and teachers, Martin added.
"Sometimes you visualize it like it was, sometimes you see it like it is right now," Martin added. "It was fun here, we had really good teachers and everyone knew each other."
Cole agreed that the teachers were good, but remembered them being equally tough as well.
"I graduated in 1951 and we love living here after we downsized," Cole said. "It's great to be back in the old school. The teachers were good but they were strict, you learned a lot."
The biggest difference between then and now might not be aesthetic but instead acoustic.
"It's a lot quieter now than it was back then," Cole mentioned.
Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Michael Hardy praised Nelson for preserving and renovating the building.
"Finding a use for historical buildings can be very complicated and is often a labor of love as much as it is a labor of business," said Hardy. "Bruce Nelson did a really great job here."